Read my heart
by ammstar11
Summary: Nico and his friends love books and would rather spend their time lounging around reading and drinking tea or coffee as they relaxed than go out partying, they seem an odd mix but they get along great. One day while at their usual café (Nico's choice) they discuss their ideal situation where a guy would try to pick them up, they don't realize that someone over heard them.
1. Chapter 1 Wouldn't it be great?

Based on things I've read on tumbler

 **Read my heart**

 **Chapter 1 Wouldn't it be great?**

"I don't get why if you're in a bar or club and a guy wants to ask you out or get your attention he'll buy you a drink, like what if you don't even like alcohol?" Piper said as she sat with her two friends in their favorite café. Annabeth nodded in agreement "I know, I mean couldn't that happen in any other setting? What about at a bookstore? I would be so much more impressed if someone offered to buy me a book, that's a better way to win my heart." She added. They both looked at Nico and smiled, it was clear that he had only half been listening as he stirred his now cold coffee as he was reading his book.

"What do you think Nico?" Piper asked fighting a grin, out of the three of them Nico was the biggest book fan and he carried a book or two wherever he went so that he would always have something to do. If any of them would love for that scenario to happen it would be him seeing as how he spent so much time in bookstores. When Nico didn't respond Annabeth threw a sugar packet at him and hit him in the middle of the forehead.

"Hey what was that for?" Nico said as he looked up from his book. "That good huh?" Piper asked nodding at the book he had been so absorbed in. Nico looked at them somewhat annoyed but they knew that he wasn't actually mad at them because deep down he was such a little softy. "What?" he asked when he noticed that they were waiting expectantly for something. Piper smiled again "We were saying how great it would be if guys tried to impress you by buying you a book at a bookstore instead of buying you a drink in a bar or club. Wouldn't you agree?"

Nico placed his bookmark between the pages he left off on and closed his book so that he could focus on his friends. "Yeah, less creepy too." Nico took a sip from his now cold coffee, he made a face but then downed the rest of it before getting up and going over to the counter to get a new drink that he could enjoy hot this time. He placed the empty cup on the counter and stood by the till to place his order.

"Hi, what can I get for you?" asked the cute blond that worked in Nico's favorite café, not that he'd ever admit to any sort of connection between the two, he tried to act like butterflies weren't having a party in his stomach when he saw that smile. "Could I get another large black coffee please?" he said, one of the things that he liked best about the blond that usually took his order was the lack of jokes about his choice of beverage to match his attire, most people took one look at him and always seemed to think that they were the first to come up with that stupid line… "To match your soul, am I right?" and there it was…

Nico turned to the person standing behind him in line, and what do you know it was the typical big guy that thinks he's a laugh riot. Just passed him Nico could see Piper and Annabeth roll their eyes, they too were sick of that line. Though Nico missed the somewhat peeved look on the cute blonds face before he replaced it with a sort of pokerfaced. Nico stared at the guy with his usual stare. "Oh hahah, did you come up with that one all on your own?" Mr. Funnyman gave him a smirk. "Let me guess you also drink it hot to remind of Hell from where you crawled up from, right?" at this point Nico could feel his eye twitching and he thought he saw Annabeth getting ready to come over to shut this guy up.

Before Nico could say anything though someone else spoke up first. "Clearly no one finds you're joke funny so if you would please stop bothering the other customers I could take your order or I'll have to ask you to leave." Nico turned and shot a surprised look at the blond, it only became more confused when the blond passed him a steaming hot cup of coffee like he had ordered without charging him for it. "Here's your coffee, have a great day." He smiled again before turning his attention back to the guy behind Nico. "Sir, are you ready to order?"

Nico was still confused as he made his way back to his table and sat down. Once he had Piper and Annabeth both leaned in closer and Nico leaned back a bit. "What?" he asked as they smiled at him. "He likes you." Piper said simply, and to clarify she nodded towards the blond behind the counter. Nico blushed and tried to act normal by opening a couple of sugar packets and adding them to his new cup of coffee. "I don't know what you mean." He said before lifting his cup to his lips. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him and glanced past him slightly before smirking. "Oh really? Then why is he looking at you like that?"

Nico almost choked on his coffee when she said that. "W-what?!" he quickly glanced over his shoulder at the counter and saw the blond quickly turn away, this only managed to deepen the blush covering his face to the point that his ears burned. He turned back to his friends "What makes you think he was looking at me?" he didn't have that kind of luck, his luck was more of those stupid jokes like before or creepy drunk guys at the bar like his friends had been talking about earlier that always seemed to think it would be funny to send a drink his way. Piper seemed to think differently though. "Because of the way he smiles more genuinely when it's you ordering rather than that practiced customer service smile he usually has, not to mention the annoyed look that crossed his face when that creep was bothering you."

"Or how he came to your rescue before I did," Annabeth said, "Or the free drink?" she added before Nico could say something about the rescue thing. "We've seen the way he looks at you, you know." She said as she took a sip from her own drink. But Nico still wasn't buying it. "He's just a really nice guy who cares about customer service, that doesn't mean he's interested in me." To close the debate Nico flipped open his book once more and went back to reading, he ignored the way the other two rolled their eyes at him.

 **So in case you didn't know, I'm really bad at sticking to one thing at a time and this just came to mind and I really needed to get it out before I forgot it, so here is another new story! Yay! Anyway this probably won't be very long but again with me you never know, but I hope you enjoy. it I just needed some cute fluff so here it is, more to come.**

 **Please let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2 Nice to meet you

**Chapter 2 Nice to meet you**

"I don't know why you guys are still going on about that, it was last week already!" Nico says as he flops down on the couch in the living room of Piper and Annabeth's apartment. "Besides why do you even care about this, don't you two actually have boyfriends?" aka Nico's cousins Percy and Jason, it was through them that Nico had come to be such great friends with Piper and Annabeth back in high school.

They had first met at the library in the small corner dedicated to just relaxing in a comfortable chair while reading rather than studying at a table or sitting at a computer. At some point the two of them who would always sit near him and quietly discuss their favorite books and characters, had noticed that Nico tended to read much of the same books as they did so one day they had invited him into their conversations. He didn't really know them though until they had started going out with his older cousins and he had started spending more time with them outside of the library.

"If you guys are living your fairy tales why do you always have to bring up my lack thereof?" Nico huffed as he leaned back on the couch. Annabeth sat next to him hunched forward over her laptop, she stopped typing and looked at him. "Maybe we're just trying to find you your own prince charming." Then she went back to typing away like there was no tomorrow. Piper walked in from the kitchen with a bowl of fresh popcorn that she sat down on the coffee table before picking up the DVD remote to start their movie. "Yeah, and he certainly is charming." She smiled as she sat herself down on the other side of Nico. He had been reaching for some popcorn at the time so he threw a few at her for her comment.

"Well he is, and don't pretend that he's not a big part of why we frequent that particular café every week." Nico rolled his eyes but couldn't deny her words so he just stuffed his face with popcorn instead. "Anyway it's just fun bugging you, we know that you're way more likely to fall for Mr. Customer service than some creeper at a bar anyway." Nico couldn't agree more. "At least a book would be more interesting than a free drink, besides if he really did make an impact then I'd think of him every time I looked at the book." Nico regretted that last part the instant he had said it but now both girls were looking at him and grinning. "Knew it." They both said. Nico went back to leaning back on the couch with his arms crossed but his face burned now. "Just shut up and start the movie already." He huffed.

Piper and Annabeth shared a look before Annabeth saved and closed her laptop and Piper started the movie. They both knew that Nico was a real romantic at heart; he was just too embarrassed to admit it.

…

On his way home from Piper and Annabeth's, Nico stopped off at his favorite bookstore and went to his favorite section to browse for new books, he debated what to get going back and forth between a few of his favorite authors for about ten minutes before finally settling on one and going to the till to pay for it. "Find everything alright today?" the clerk asked as they rang up the book for him, and Nico nodded. "Yeah." He was really bad at small talk but thought he should put some effort into saying something since he was in here so often he was sure that the staff knew him on sight and by name. "I've been waiting on this one for a while but didn't bother pre-ordering it." The clerk nodded. "Yeah sometimes the ones that are ordered ahead of time take longer to get here than the copies we have in stock during the first day of release." Nico knew that from experience, sometimes it was hit and miss.

After he finished paying for his book he said goodbye and headed out of the store, but on his way out he bumped into someone. The impact had sent him back a few steps and he dropped the book he had just bought. "Oh I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, I really should have been paying more attention." Nico had bent and reached down to pick up the bag with his new book without looking at the person he had run into but he froze for a split second as he realized that he recognized that voice. Slowly Nico looked up at the person standing in front of him; they were holding their hand out to him to help him back up.

Nico took the hand of the cute blond from the café; he realized that he'd never seen him outside of work and that he doesn't actually know the blonds name even though he's been seriously crushing on the guy for about five months now, something that his friends like to remind him of. "It's okay, I wasn't really looking either." Nico says trying to sound normal and hoping that his voice doesn't break or anything else embarrassing happens while he talks to the blond standing before him. Said blond smiles and points to Nico's new book. "I hope it didn't get damaged, it's always a shame when anything happens to a good book." _So he's a book lover too._ Nico thought but snapped himself out of it quickly. "No worries, it's fine."

The blond smiled again "I'm glad, wouldn't want to ruin it if you only just bought it right?" Nico smiled a little too "Yeah, hadn't even cracked the spine yet." He realized that he felt way more comfortable talking with the blond then he did with most people outside of his small circle of friends, though it came as more of a pleasant surprize than anything. "I'm Will, I see you a lot at the café where I work and I noticed that you seem to really like books too." _Well now I have a name to go with the face._ Nico thinks to himself, it's better than always referring to him as the cute blond all of the time, and better yet than Piper and Annabeth calling him Prince Charming or anything else along those lines.

"Nico, nice to officially meet you I guess." He said as he shook hands with Will, he could almost swear he felt something like a jolt pass between them but he just chalked that up to his imagination. "Um thanks for the other day, you have no idea how old that joke gets, I swear everyone that uses it thinks they're the first to ever say it outside of the internet or something stupid like that." Nico tried to play nonchalant by rolling his eyes at the thought of what had happened yet again. Will let out a laugh "Heh yeah it's like they think that they're the only ones that have ever seen a meme or twitter post before."

He smiled warmly at Nico causing his heart to flutter just a bit, or was it those butterflies in his stomach again? Either way that smile was amazing. "Besides what's wrong with wearing all black? And drinking plain black coffee? What right do people have to judge you?" Okay Nico was liking him more and more now. "True, for all they know my soul is bright shimmering rainbows with unicorns and puppies and I just need the black clothes to keep it from blinding everyone." Nico said with a slight grin, and this time Will's laugh rang out loud and pure and Nico was glad that he had been the reason for it.

"Hahaha! Oh my God I wouldn't have ever thought of something like that!" Nico was going to say something else but then his phone rang. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, recognizing his sister's ringtone right away so he didn't have to check the name before answering. "Hey Hazel did you need something?" Nico turned away from Will slightly as he spoke on the phone and missed how the humor faded slightly from Will's eyes. "Hey Nico, could you make a quick stop on your way home? I was in the middle of making supper when I realized that we're out of dressing for the salad; could you grab some on your way?" Nico smiled, he knew his sister tended to overlook a thing or two whenever she planned on making dinner so he was always ready to head out to the store to pick things up on the nights that were her turn to cook. "Sure thing, text me if you need anything else, see you when I get home."

He hung up and turned back to Will. "Sorry about that, my sister needed me to make a quick run to the store before dinner." Will smiles brightly at him again. "No problem, it was nice talking to you Nico." Nico smiled back. "Same to you Will." And with that they went their separate ways as Nico left the book store. On his way to pick up the salad dressing Nico pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Annabeth.

 **Nico: His name is Will. He likes books.**

He hit send and smiled to himself once more before she text back.

 **Annabeth: ;) Best of luck.**

Nico rolled his eyes but his smile grew as he continued walking.

 **And that's chapter 2! Like it so far?**


	3. Chapter 3 While you wait

**Hey guy's guess who's back after spraining their wrist! (Again...) Honestly I hurt myself way too often but at least its nothing major just inconvenient, but here I am with a new chapter yay!**

 **Chapter 3 While you wait**

Today Nico had arrived at the café slightly early and grabbed their usual table and sat down to wait for Annabeth and Piper. He pulled out his newest book that he was already about halfway through and turned to the page he had left off on. He was so lost in the words on the page that he didn't realize that someone had sat down at the table with him until he reached for the coffee that was placed in front of him and took a sip. He sputtered and coughed when he looked over the rim of the cup and saw that it wasn't Annabeth or Piper sitting there but Will.

"Are you alright?" Will asked as he looked ready to rush over and help Nico if he needed it. But Nico managed to catch his breath again and set the drink down as he looked at the blond sitting across from him. "Will! Uh hi, I-I wasn't expecting to see you, well of course I'd see you, you work here and usually this shift, but you're not working, and you're sitting here and… why did you get me a coffee?" Nico was rambling he knew but he was really curious about this whole situation and honestly very confused.

Will smiled good naturedly. "I worked the early shift today so I'm done now. As for the drink we get free coffee on shift and I grabbed one for you since you've been sitting here for about forty minutes now, I'm assuming waiting for friends, so I thought I'd come over and keep you company until they got here. I also remembered the amount of sugar you usually put in yourself after so I did that for you, I hope it's okay."

Nico tried not to look as flustered as he felt at that moment but that had been really thoughtful of Will considering they'd only really talked once outside of Nico ordering something and making small talk here and there. "Thanks, it's great actually. I didn't even realize I'd been here that long." Now that he thought about it his friends should have been here by now or at least tried to reach him, so Nico pulled out his phone and sure enough his phone had been on silent so he hadn't noticed when Annabeth had texted him.

 **Annabeth: Hey Neeks, Pipes and I are going to be running late today but we'll treat you to make it up to you.**

Nico readjusted the volume on his phone and sent a text back.

 **Nico: No worries got my book.**

 **Annabeth: I knew you would. :P**

 **Annabeth: Be there soon.**

 **Nico: Okay see you soon.**

Nico put his phone away and looked back at Will. "Sorry about that, Annabeth had text me but I couldn't hear the phone so I never noticed." He gave Will a sheepish smile. Will shook his head. "That's alright, so is that the book you bought the other day?" he nodded towards the book that still lay open in front of Nico on the table. "Yeah, I've been reading it as often as I can outside of class so I'm nearly done it now." He looked down to see that there weren't that many chapters left now and that he'd likely be done it tonight.

"Guess it's time to get another one." He said more to himself, just thinking out loud, but Will nodded in understanding. "I've read an entire eight hundred page book in less than eight hours one time and that was while trying to pace myself." Nico laughed, he knew the feeling, if he was really into a book and had nothing else going on then he'd continue reading nonstop if he could help it until he had finished.

Hoping to learn a little more about Will he decided to turn the conversation towards him now. "So you said you were working the early shift today, how come?" he really hoped he wasn't prying too much. He didn't want to seem nosy and annoy Will now that they were finally actually talking to one another. But Will didn't seem bothered by the question and answered happily.

"A co-worker of mine was attending a wedding today, it came up last minute because one of the brides maid couldn't make it so they were filling in, and they had asked me if I could cover for them while they were gone, I don't usually have anything going on at that time so I didn't mind covering for them." Nico thought that was really nice of him and said as much. "That's pretty cool of you." Will laughed and smiled almost to himself. "Well I did have one condition, I told her that I wanted to see pictures of her in the dress, she was the only one that was the right size and since she wasn't the original one that was meant to wear it I wanted to see how she looked in it seeing as how she said she hated the color and she's not really a fan of dresses to begin with."

He found this interesting. "What color is the dress?" he thought maybe some weird pink or bright green or something. "Bright orange, bordering on neon and she told me that it makes her feel like a walking pumpkin that could probably glow in the dark."

Nico couldn't help himself, he let out a sort before he could stop it and quickly clamped a hand over his mouth out of embarrassment but when he heard Will's laugh he soon forgot about feeling embarrassed and joined in. Will had such an amazing and contagious laugh and he didn't know why but sitting here and laughing with this guy he barely knew just felt so right and natural to him.

"Okay, I guess I can see why you would want pictures of that." He said as they both calm down. He's smiling more than he thought he could while just talking to someone outside of his small circle of close friends but he likes how it feels. Suddenly Nico jumps when he hears his phone go off in his pocket. He pulls it out and see's that Piper is calling him so he answers it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Neeks, how's it going?"

"…Fine I guess, where are you guys?"

"Oh we might be running later than expected. You don't mind do you?"

He's sure he can hear a smile in her voice and he's immediately suspicious.

"How late?"

"How late do you want us to be?"

He glanced around and thought he spotted what looked like a small handheld mirror from around the corner outside angled at his table. His friends were spying on him and purposely making him sit here and wait for them while they stood outside and watched him sit here with his crush laughing like a love struck fool. He didn't know whether to curse them out or give them a huge hug when he finally saw them because they were the best friends he could ever ask for.

"Just get here whenever, no big rush." He said before hanging up the phone and looking at Will.

"Sorry, my friends should be coming any time now. Would you um, like to stick around when they get here? They're also big into books so you might like talking with them." He wasn't sure if he was doing this right or not, he wasn't used to inviting people to do anything and wasn't sure what protocol you used when trying to discreetly ask your crush not to leave.

Will brightened and nodded. "Sure, sounds good." Nico felt like his stomach was full of butterflies, who knew that actually happened? Soon enough Piper and Annabeth were walking in and came over to the table to join them and Nico was really happy when Will switched over to the seat next to him, offering the one he had been in to Piper while Annabeth went to get the two of them something to drink.

When she got back they introduced themselves and for the next hour or so the four of them sat there and talked animatedly about their favorite books, characters, genres, and plot points. Nico pulled out his phone and glanced at the text on the screen while Piper and Will chatted about amazing character development and saw Annabeth watching him with an amused smirk on her face.

 **Annabeth: He's a keeper ;D**

 **Nico: Shut up, I don't even know if he's interested.**

He saw Annabeth roll her eyes before shooting him another quick text.

 **Annabeth: Oh please. Get a clue Sherlock.**

 **Nico: He's just being nice.**

 **Annabeth: Free dink number 2?**

 **Nico: Shut up.**

 **Annabeth: XD It's cute the way he's looking at you.**

Nico's head shoots up just catching Will's eyes on him but they both blush and look away quickly.

 **Nico: OMFG**

 **Annabeth: ;D**

"You should join us again some time Will." Annabeth said as she stood up to take their empty cups up to the counter, Will tried to help her but she insisted that his shift was over so he should just sit and relax.

"I'm going to go buy a pastry for the road, just give your number to Nico and we'll shoot you a text sometime." Piper said as she got up and headed after Annabeth, again Nico wasn't sure if he hated or loved the two of them and their stupidly wonderful attempts to put him together with Will.

"Sure, pass me your phone and I'll add my number." Will said without hesitation as he turned and smiled at Nico. He passed him his phone and felt as though a jolt passed between them as their fingers brushed, _Oh God here we go_ he thought as the fluttering in his stomach intensified.

He just knew he'd be sitting up all night glancing at his phone and Will's name and number in his contacts.

 **Well I hope you liked that one, please let me know what you think.**


End file.
